Aggro
Managing aggro is one of the most important aspects of grouping because so much depends on how much damage the group receives and where the damage ends up. For a long time it was thought that we as players would never be able get a sound understanding of how aggro works because it was assumed that it is based on complicated AI algorithms which can't reasonably be deduced from the little information Blizzard has made available to us. Thanks to the work of some dedicated individuals, however, we now know that this is not the case. Today we have a quite thorough theory on aggro which explains most of the factors involved in a mob's target selection. These ideas and findings are outlined in this article. = Theory = Threat Several abilities and effects increase a character's threat level against a mob. Note that the effective amount of threat generated can be modified by talents and spells. See the Threat modifiers subsection for details. Threat level increasing abilities Name Threat Improved Revenge stun 25 Demoralizing Roar 42 Demoralizing Shout 43 Battle Shout 55 per buffed member Faerie Fire 108 Heroic Strike (rank 8) 145* Shield Bash 180* Shield Slam 250* Sunder Armor 261 Revenge (rank 5) 315* Distracting Shot (rank 6) 600 Torment (rank 6) 395 Growl (rank 7) 415 Suffering (rank 4) 600 Polymorph (Rank ?) ? Mind Control (Rank ?) ? * The figures for these maneuvers do not include Threat generated by their damage. Threat level reducing abilities Name Threat Soothing Kiss (rank 4) -165 Disengage (rank 3) -405 Pet:Cower (Hunter Pet) (rank 6) -225 Druid:Cower (Druid Cat) (rank 3) -600 Feint (rank 5) -800 Fade* (rank 6) -820 * Fade is a temporary buff. When it expires, its threat level reduction is revoked once an aggro generating action is performed. Threat modifiers per Class The actual threat generated by the effects above can be modified by the following abilities, talents and spells: * Warrior ** Battle Stance. All threat generated is reduced by 20%. ** Berserker Stance. All threat generated is reduced by 20%. ** Defensive Stance. All threat generated is increased by 30%. ** Defiance. All threat generated in Defensive Stance is increased by 3%-15% (depending on rank). * Druid ** Bear Form/Dire Bear Form. All threat generated is increased by 30%. ** Feral Instinct. All threat generated in Bear and Dire Bear Form is increased by 3%-15% (depending on rank). ** Maul. Threat generated on next attack is increased by 75%. ** Swipe. Threat generated by this ability is increased by 75%. ** Cat Form. All threat generated is reduced by 29%. ** Subtlety. Threat generated by healing spells is reduced by 4%-20% (depending on rank). * Paladin ** Blessing of Salvation All threat generated is reduced by 30%. ** Righteous Fury. Threat generated by Holy damage is increased by 60%. ** Improved Righteous Fury. Threat generated by Holy damage when using Righteous Fury is increased by 16%-50% (depending on rank). ** Threat generated by healing spells is reduced by 50%. * Mage ** Arcane Subtlety. Threat generated by offensive Arcane spells is reduced by 20%-40% (depending on rank). ** Frost Channeling. Threat generated by offensive Frost spells is reduced by 10%-30% (depending on rank). ** Burning Soul. Threat generated by offensive Fire spells is reduced by 15%-30% (depending on rank). ** All threat is reduced by 100% with every spell. * Priest ** Shadow Affinity. Threat generated by Shadow spells is reduced by 8%-25% (depending on rank). ** Silent Resolve. Threat generated by spells is reduced by 4%-20% (depending on rank). ** Mind Blast Threat generated by this ability is increased by 100%. * Warlock ** Master Demonologist. With Imp summoned, threat generated by all spells is reduced by 4%-20% (depending on rank). ** Searing Pain Threat generated by this ability is increased by 100%. * Shaman ** Tranquil Air Totem All threat generated is reduced by 20%. ** Healing Grace. Threat generated by healing spells is reduced by 5%-15% (depending on rank). ** Earth Shock Threat generated by this ability is increased by 100%. ** Rockbiter Weapon Imbue the Shaman's weapon, increasing melee attack power by 29-554 and allowing melee attacks to cause additional threat when using that weapon. Lasts for 5 minutes. * Rogue ** All threat generated is reduced by 29%. - Rogue agro reduction was buffed from 20% to 29% in patch 1.12. Druids in Cat Form were given the same bonus. Warriors in Battle and Berserker Stance are still only looking at a 20% agro reduction. Threat reducing Items * Bloodfang Armor 5 part set bonus : 25% improved Feint * Formula: Enchant Cloak - Subtlety : -2% * Nemesis Raiment 8 part set bonus : Reduces the threat generated by your Destruction spells by 20%. * Bonescythe Armor 6 part set bonus : Reduces the threat from your Backstab, Sinister Strike, Hemorrhage, and Eviscerate abilities by 8% * Vestments of Faith 6 Part set bonus : * Black Amnesty : -540 Threat * Grace of Earth : -640 Threat ~ 30 Yards * Fetish of the Sand Reaver : Reduces the threat you generate by 70% for 20 sec Stacked threat modifiers All threat reduction effects stack in a multiplicative fashion, for example: You are a warrior in Berserker Stance (-20% threat generated) and are effected by Blessing of Salvation (-30% threat generated) Your total threat reduction would be: Berserker Stance (0.8 threat generated per point of damage)*Blessing of Salvation (0.7 threat generated per point of damage). 0.8*0.7=0.56 or 56% of threat generated - a total of 44% threat reduction. Bonuses to threat generation applies in the same way as reductions since patch 1.12. Known bugs Threat reduction abilities are also affected by threat reducing effects. Example: Rogues have -29 % threat as an inate ability which is always active. Feint reduces threat by -800. However. the -29% affects feint, which causes it to remove only 568 threat, instead of the avertised ammount. Additional notes * Pulling (being the first who a mob attacks) does not generate any threat in itself. * Overhealing doesn't generate any threat, only actual health restored. * Threat doesn't decay (passively degenerate over time). * A character's threat level is reset if the character dies or moves away from the mob. * A character's threat level cannot be negative. * The hunter's Feign Death and the rogue's Vanish resets the player's threat level on all mobs which don't resist it. Aggro By aggro we understand the condition of a particular mob attacking a particular character. The basic behaviour of aggro is controlled by the rules outlined below. Obviously, some mobs will have secondary attacks which have different targeting procedures. Pulling The following conditions will cause a mob to attack a character if it isn't already attacking someone else: # Using certain abilities on the mob (including attacking it), or # Moving inside the aggro radius of the mob Drawing Aggro The following conditions will cause a mob to attack a character if it is already attacking someone else: # Taunting the mob, or # Exceeding the threat level of the mob's current target by 10% within melee range of the mob, or # Exceeding the threat level of the mob's current target by 30% outside melee range of the mob, or # The player with aggro leaves the leash range of the mob, leaves the instance, successfully uses an ability to leave combat (such as feign death), or dies, or # If certain abilities impair the access of the mob to its higher threat-ranked targets (e.g. root spells), the mob will attack the highest threat-ranked target in its ability range (usually visible for melee mobs or silenced casters, which have a combat range of 5 yards) # If certain abilities apply a debuff to a character that cause the mob to consider the player an invalid target. Usually these debuffs have a chance (or certainty) to break on damage, but there are some that don't but still cause the mob to consider the character an invalid target. Examples include Polymorph, Gouge, Fear, Conflagration, etc. Taunting The following skills are taunting abilities: * A Warrior's Taunt * A Warrior's Mocking Blow * A Warrior's Challenging Shout * A Druid's Bear-Form Growl (same as Taunt) * A Druid's Bear-Form Challenging Roar (same as Challenging Shout) (The Growl of a Hunter's pet and Torment ability of a Warlock's voidwalker are not actual taunting abilities; they merely cause a substantial amount of Threat.) When a mob is Taunted through the use of one of these taunting abilities, two things happen: # A short-lived debuff is applied to the mob, which forces it to attack the character who used the taunting ability on it; and # The Threat level of the character who used the taunting ability is immediately raised to be equal to the Threat level of whoever currently has aggro, if the taunting character's Threat is lower. (Note: This only counts for Taunt & Growl. Mocking Blow, Challenging Shout and Challenging Roar force mobs to attack you, but do not receive this second effect. Mocking Blow generates a pre-defined amount of threat, Challenging Shout/Roar do not generate any threat at all!) Taunting has some strange behavior in that if the tank pulled, the mob will stay on the tank after the taunt debuff has worn off, even if the tank has not made up the 10% difference in aggro between the tank and whoever pulled aggro. If another party member pulls (and does not wipe their aggro) then if they later pull aggro from the tank, if the tank taunts he must do 10% threat before the debuff wears off or he will lose aggro again. Further complications Healing a tank who holds multiple mobs When a tank hold multiple mobs, the threat of a heal on the tank will be split between all the mobs. The exact formula is not yet known, but it is more than the Threat/number of mobs. So if a tank holds 5 mobs and receives a heal, the threat on each mob will be less than Threat(heal)/5. Current speculation is Threat(heal)/(num of mobs *2) The implication here is simple: in a 5-man party or 10-man raid, let the tank charge in. The tank then must throw Demoralizing Shout (to get some threat on all mobs) and then start sundering/revenging/whatever. Otherwise, with 0 threat on some mobs, the first heal will cause those mobs to attack the healer. Implications * Let the tank pull, or be the first to gain aggro after a Hunter has pulled and feigned death. This way, his taunts will always return aggro to him. * Two or more tanks taunting targets from each other (and generating threat in various ways between the cooldowns) are great for generating immense amounts of hate very fast - since they always have each other as "top reference" in the hate list. * Because characters standing out of melee range will not draw aggro until they exceed the threat level of the mob's current target by 30%, it's important that the tank keep the mobs well away from the casters. If a caster does draw aggro and you taunt it off him, make sure you also move it away. = References = * Kenco . ''Some Threat Values and Formulas''. Category:Formulas and Game Mechanics